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Larry Eigner
'Laurence Joel Eigner'LCNAF on-line (Library of Congress Authority Files) lists Eigner's full name as Laurence Joel Eigner (August 7, 1927 - February 3, 1996) was an American poet of the 2nd half of the 20th century, a principal figure of the Black Mountain school and for many poets, including Eigner, this centered around Charles Olson at Black Mountain College in the mid-20th Century. Charles Bukowski once called him the "greatest living poet." Life Eigner grew up in Swampscott, Massachusetts. Eigner was critically palsied as a result of a bungled forceps delivery at birth, and spent most of his life in bed or in a wheelchair. His parents believed that he was incapable of language until he taught himself to use a typewriter in his teens. As he matured into an artist, Eigner overcame many physical obstacles and limitations to achieve a mastery over the material text, producing his typescripts on a 1940 Royal manual typewriter using only his right index finger and thumb.Eigner was able to "create shifting constellations of words in space whose musical and visual designs are realized in a language at once immediate and highly abstract'', according to his publisher's page at Stanford University Press's Eigner page'' Perhaps the best realization to date of the idea of "composition by field" proposed by Charles Olson in his landmark essay "Projective Verse," the physical act of writing took tremendous effort from Eigner. the physicality of each line is something that Ron Silliman notes in many places, including his widely read poetry weblog See External links below Larry Eigner authored more than 40 books, among them From the Sustaining of Air (1953), Another Time in Fragments (1967), Country/Harbor/Quiet/Act/Around-selected prose (1978), and Waters/Places/a Time (1983). His work appeared in well over 100 magazines and collections, most notably Origin, Black Mountain Review '', [[L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E|''L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E]], and Donald Allen's anthology ''The New American Poetry, 1945-1960''. Larry Eigner died from pneumonia and other complications on February 3, 1996. Writing Eigner is one of the lesser known Black Mountain poets, although he was influential among the next generation's Language poets.particularly Ron Silliman and Charles Bernstein, both of whom are on record as admirers of his work Highlighting Eigner's influence on the "Language School" of poetry, his work often appeared in the journal L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E, and was featured on the front page of its inaugural issue in February 1978. In Ron Silliman's introduction to his anthology of Language Poetry, In the American Tree (Orono, ME: National Poetry Foundation,1986)[http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/5700 Great Anthology: In the American Tree] article from the Academy of American Poets website – dedicated to Eigner – Silliman identifies this poet as one who has ‘transcended the problematic constraints’ of Olson's speech-based projectivist poetics. Eigner has himself pointed out that his poetry originates in ‘thinking’ rather than speech. Recognition In 2010, Stanford University Press published The Collected Poems of Larry Eigner, Volumes 1-4 (Vol. I: 1937-1958; Vol. II: 1958-1966; Vol. III: 1966-1978; Vol. IV: 1978-1995). The collection was edited by Robert Grenier and Curtis Faville. Publications Poetry * From the Sustaining Air. Palma de Mallorca, Spain: Divers Press, 1953; Eugene, OR: Toad Press, 1967. *''On My Eyes'' (photos by Harry M. Callahan). Highlands, NC: J. Williams, 1960. *''Six Poems''. Portland, OR: Wine Press, 1967. *''The Towards Autumn''. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1967. * Another Time in Fragments. London: Fulcrum Press, 1967. *''A Line that May Be Cut: Poems from 1965''. London: Circle Press, 1968. * Air, the Trees. Santa Rosa, CA: Black Sparrow, 1968. *''The Music, The Rooms''. Albuquerque, NM: Desert Review Press, 1968. *''The Breath of Once-Living Things: In the field with Poe''. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1968. *''Flat and Round''. Berkeley, CA: Tuumba Press, 1968. *''Valleys, Branches''. London: Big Venus, 1969. *''What You Hear''. London: Edible Magazine, 1972. *''Looks Like Nothing / The shadow through air''. Guilford, Surrey, UK: Circle Press, 1972. *''Shape, Shadow, Elements Move''. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1973. * Things Stirring Together or Far Away. Los Angeles: Black Sparrow, 1974. *''Anything on its Side''. New Rochelle, NY: Elizabeth Press, 1974. *''My God the Proverbial: 42 poems and 2 prose pieces''. L Publications, 1975. *''The World and its Streets, Places''. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1977. *''Watching How or Why''. New Rochelle, NY: Elizabeth Press, 1977. *''Cloud, Invisible Air''. Rhinebeck, NY: Station Hill, 1978. *''The Music Variety''. Newton, MA: Roxbury Poetry Enterprises, 1976. *''Time Details of a Tree''. New Rochelle, NY: Elizabeth Press, 1979. *''Lined up Bulk Senses''. Providence, RI: Burning Deck Press, 1980. * now there’s-a-morning-hulk of the sky. 1981. * Waters, Places, a Time. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1983. *''Windows / Walls / Yards / Ways''. Santa Barbara, CA: Black Sparrow, 1994. * Readiness Enough Depends on (edited by Robert Grenier). Copenhagen, Denmark, & Los Angeles: Green Integer, 2000. Non-fiction * Farther North. S. Charters, 1969. * Country / Harbour / Quiet / Act / Around: Selected rrose (edited by Barrett Wharton. Kensington, CA: This Press, 1978. Collected editions *''Selected Poems'' (edited by Samuel Charters & Andrea Wyatt Sexton). Berkeley, CA: Oyez, 1971. * Collected Poems ''(edited by Curtis Faville & Robert Grenier). (4 volumes), Stanford CA: Stanford University Press, 2010. *''Areas, Heights, Lights: Collected writings, 1954-1989 (edited by Benjamin Friedlander). New York: Roof Books, 1989. *''Calligraphy Typewriters: Selected poems'' (edited by Curtis Faville & Robert Grenier). Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 2017. Letters *''Larry Eigner Letters'' (edited by Robert Kocik & Joseph Simas). Paris: Moving Letters Press, 1987. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au: Larry Eigner, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, July 26,, 2014. See also * List of U.S. poets References Notes External links ;Poems * “how many years / without death”: Larry Eigner's memento mori five poems from readiness / enough / depends / on, plus a brief essay * Larry Eigner 1927-1996 at the Poetry Foundation * Larry Eigner at EPC Electronic Poetry Center * TOTTEL'S #15: Larry Eigner Issue ;Audio / video * Larry Eigner at PennSound (includes audiofiles of readings and interviews) *Larry Eigner at YouTube ;Books *Larry Eigner at Amazon.com ;About * Eigner Author Page at Stanford University Press The publisher of The Collected Poems of Larry Eigner, Volumes 1-4 offers extensive resources on Eigner's life to include reviews, descriptions, and a pdf file of editor Robert Grenier's "Introduction" *"The Same Old Things: The poetry of Larry Eigner" at Jacket ;Reviews and perspectives * The Same Old Things: The poetry of Larry Eigner essay on Eigner's poetry in Jacket * [http://ronsilliman.blogspot.com/2007/09/it-took-me-long-time-seven-years-to.html Reading Eigner and readiness / enough / depends / on] Poet and indefatigable blogger Ron Silliman discusses a recent Eigner (posthumous) publication *Missing Larry: The Poetics of Disability in Larry Eigner This online essay makes up Chapter 5 of poet and scholar Michael Davidson's book Concerto for the Left Hand; Disability and the Defamiliar Body, published by University of Michigan Press in 2008. * Born from the Head - Larry Eigner's 1st Published Poem in 1952 this essay is by Curtis Faville, who coedited Eigner's Collected * ¿¿ Fidelity to Eigner’s Poem-Pages ??(no no oh no oh no no no) Here began a controversy surrounding the 2010 publication of Eigners Collected initiated by Steven Fama. Fama argues that the editors and publishers of the Collected have not shown the requisite fidelity to the spacing & visual presentation of Eigner's typescripts. In the comment section after the article, a coeditor of the Collected, Curtis Faville, defends the editorial decisions made to bring a Collected Eigner into print. * "I have lived with the poetry of Larry Eigner for 45 years" Ron Silliman's initial response to the publication of Eigner's Collected Poems. Silliman also weighs in on the publication controversy surrounding the layout of the Collected. ;Etc. * Larry Eigner Papers housed at Stanford University * Larry Eigner Papers housed at the Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas * of the Larry Eigner Papers hosted by Online Archive of California (OAC) Category:American poets Category:Black Mountain poets Category:1927 births Category:1996 deaths Category:Language poets Category:People from Swampscott, Massachusetts Category:20th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Modernist poets Category:Poets Category:Handicapped poets